Leer.



W. L. CLAUSE.

LEER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 15. 1912.

Patented June 4, 1918.

Z SHEETS-SHEETI W. L. CLAUSE.

LEER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 15. 1912.

Patented June 1, 1918.

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GH, PENNSYIiVANIA, ASSIGNOR 'ro PITTSBURGH F PENNSYLVANIA.

LEER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June a, rats.

Application filed June 15, 1912.. Serial No. 703,777.

To all whom z'tmay concern: Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. CLAUSE, acitizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburgh, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Leers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates primarily to leers for the annealing of plateglass and it has for itsprincipal objects the provision of means wherebysinking, cracking and other forms of distortion and breakage of the leerre sulting from the heating of the supporting ground-work of the leer isprevented; and means for insulating the surface supporting the leer fromthe action of the heat. These, together with such other a sectionthrough objects as may hereinafterappear or are in cidental to theinvention, I attain by means of a construction which I have illustratedin preferred form in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure l is alongitudinal section through a leer embodying my invention; Fig. 2 isthe leer taken on't-he line II-II of Fig'. 1; Fig. 3 is a sectionthrough the ovens of the leer taken on the line III-III of Fig.1; andFig. 4 is a section through the leer taken on the line IV IV of Fig. 1.w

It has been found that theheat employed a in annealing the glass in theleer dries out or evaporates the moisture in the soil su porting theleer with the result-that shrinkage and sinking of the soil and with itthe foundations, occurs. This shrinkage and sinking is frequentlyirregular, particularly the plates of where the soil is composed largelyof clay which contains a considerable portion of moisture, and thewallsof the leer become distorted, cracked or sunk in portions, thusimpairing the effectiveness of the apparatus. It is one of the chiefobjects of my invention to overcome this difliculty.

Referring now to Fig. 1 of the drawings, it will be seen that I havediagrammatically illustrated an annealing leer comprising an ovenportion A, a portion B commonly designated as the lifting station and aportion C which is the leer proper and is provided with a chamber orrunway D'through which glass .are gradually moved.

The portion A 1s composed of a plurality of ovens arranged in steps atright angles to one another in the usual manner, and the,

plates of glass 7, diagrammatically shown in the drawing are transferredat the lifting station B to a step-by-step or intermittent conveyermechanism (not shown) by which they are gradually transferred to thedischarge end of ture of the leer gradually decreases from the oven endto the discharge end thereof in the usual manner, the heat beingsupplied to the ovens, lifting station and runway by means of the seriesof heating flues 8, 9 and 10 respectively. The flue chambers of theovens extend across the width of the ovens and are divided into an upperand lower compartment by means of the longitudinal arches 11, the uppercompartments constituting the heating flues 8 and the lower compartmentsl2 constituting The insulating flues 12 open at one side of the leerinto a chamber 13 which is preferably closed by a foraminous plate 14and at the other side to venting stacks 15 built into the side Wall ofthe leer, (see particularly Fig. 3). A plurality of insulating ues 16are arranged longitudinally of the lifting station and open at one endinto the chamber 17 which extends across the leer transversely of thelifting station, and at.

partments by longltudinally extendingarches or bridge walls 19. Theupper compartments are the heating flueslO herein before re- 'ferred to,and the lower compartments con-.

stitute insulating flues 20. The heating flues 10 open into a passage 21which extends the runway D. The temperainsulating flues.

transversely across the discharge end of the runway and leads to a stack22.

material decreases proportionately in order to secure proper graduationof the heat from the hot to the cooler portions of the runway.

The purpose of the provision of the in- I sulating flues 12, 1'6 and 20is the protection of the surface of the supporting soil 26 from theaction of the excessive heat in the ovens,

lifting station and runway. The insulating efiect is obtained in thefollowing manner: When the air in the flues 12 and 16 becomes heated, itrises in the stacks 15 and a natural circulation of air is set up, coolair being drawn into the flues 12 from the chamber 13 and into the flues.16 from the chamber 17 A similar circulation is set up in the flues 20under the runway, the cool air being drawn in from the chamber 17 whichas before pointed out, is open at the sides, and the hot air beingdischarged from the stack 24:. In this case, however, the circulation isgreatly assisted by the upward slope given the flues. -The course of theair currents is indicated by arrows. It will be apparent from theforegoing that the supporting surface of the soil will be insulated fromthe heat by comparatively cool air and that the' the improvement in itsbroader aspect is not limited to my particular arrangement of insulatingflues. That is to say, the flues could also be arranged transversely,diagonally or otherwise, as Well as longitudinally without materiallyimpairing the insulating functions thereof. 1

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claimas new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is the following 1. A leercomprising a leer chamber for the glass having a bottom wall supportedabove the ground by a plurality of vertical walls resting upon theground spaced apart to permit the passage of air between them,

walls resting upon the ground spaced apart to permit the passage of airbetween them, conduits beneath the bottom wall for heating the leerchamber and a heat storing element beneath the conduits and spaced fromthe ground, having its thickest portion adjacent the front end of theleer chamber and gradually diminishing in thiclmess toward the rear ordischarge end of the leer chamber.

3. A leer comprising a leer chamber for the glass having conduitsbeneath the bottom wall thereof for conducting heated gases, means forsupporting the leer chamber above the ground and a heat absorbingelement between the ground and the conduits spaced from the ground toprovide passages for cool air beneath the heat ab sorbing element, theSaid element having its greatest thickness adjacent the front end of theleer and gradually diminishing in thickpess toward the rear or dischargeend of the eel I 4. A leercomprising a leer chamber for the glass havinga substantially horizontal bottom supported above the ground, conduitsbeneath and parallel with the bottom for conducting heated gases, a heatabsorbing element beneath the conduits having its greatest thicknessadjacent the front end of the leer and diminishing in thickness towardthe rear or discharge end of the leer, and

subscribed witnesses.

j W. L. CLAUSE. Witnesses:

C. S. LAMB,- M. T. COCHRAN.

